Production waste streams are quickly becoming a significant liability due to increasingly stringent environmental standards requiring proper disposal. As disposal costs continue to increase, options for disposing of production waste continue to decline.
In some industries, such waste streams have commercial value and can be sold at a profit. However, due to dramatic domestic growth in many industries, such as value-added agricultural industries, the value of such byproducts continues to decrease. One example of a value-added agricultural industry experiencing dramatic growth is ethanol production from corn. As a result, the ethanol byproduct known as “distiller's dry grain with solubles” (DDGS) is expected to lose value in the near future due to market oversupply.
Thus, what is needed is a safe and profitable means for handling production waste streams that meet stringent new environmental regulations.